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Hyunhaetan Marriage – Drama Special: Part I

I was a bit disappointed with this drama, to be honest. Maybe because it was Im Joo Hwan or because of the interesting story line that I expected more from it. But the story was typical, circular, and all too cliched.

Nevertheless, kudos to the acting of the couple – Im was pretty funny, and Akiba Rie impressed me, since she’s not really an actress.

Kim Dae Chun (Im Joo Hwan) and Shibata Takako (Akiba Rie) are a newly engaged couple who both work at a research lab. Takako is clearly more skilled than Dae Chun, but it only makes the coupling even funnier. At work they cannot let everyone else see their relationship, so when Dae Chun can’t even kill a lab rat, Takako has to severely berate him.

It begins with Dae Chun trying to find the best way to propose to her. She catches him making love to a pillow and snatches it away to wash again. He grabs his planner (which matches Takako’s) and tries to write out his thoughts. They are a happy couple – except their tastes in food. Dae Chun misses Korean food, but too bad she can’t cook any.

Their boss sends them out to Busan to collect some blood samples for their research. When Takako opens her planner to schedule their trip, she finds instead Dae Chun’s inner thoughts – all of which profess his great love for her. And this is how his proposal comes out. But in their dreams that night, both of them dream of facing their respective fathers who would greatly disapprove of their marriage.

Dae Chun and Takako first go to Busan to deal with his father, and Dae Chun tries to teach her the Saturi accent – they’re going to pass Takako as a local Busan girl. Dae Chun’s father, Kim Dal Man, is the first to meet her – and Dae Chun tries to answer all the questions so that Takako can speak as little as possible. She hasn’t completely mastered the Saturi accent either. Problem is, when Dae Chun goes to the bathroom his three sisters show up and start fawning all over her. Takako mildly freaks at not really knowing what to do without her guide.

Takako hates hiding her identity from the family, especially since she can’t keep it up for long. Dae Chun decides that he will tell his father the truth – but when he does, Dal Man reacts as suspected: he flips a switch and refuses to accept their marriage. The sisters as well start getting mad and when the father has that cliched-pain-in-the-neck, the sisters also start beating Takako and pulling her hair.

Back in Japan, Takako’s father, Shibata Masao, has a weird dream about his daughter and next thing he knows, he is being notified that his daughter is in the hospital. (Who says dreams can’t be used as prophecies?)

Dae Chun is dragged away from Takako’s bedside, so when she wakes up, she cries from loneliness and feeling of abandonment. Turns out – Dal Man took Dae Chun out for a ride on his ratty boat that barely works and is never used anymore. Apparently, the Japanese had taken away his fishing nets and equipment, thus removing Dal Man’s ability to continue doing the job he loves. He wishes to die on that boat if Dae Chun is to marry Takako, and so Dae Chun gets on the boat too – they can die together.

Problem is – Dae Chun receives a call from the hospital, telling him that Takako’s parents are trying to check her out, but they shouldn’t since Takako is pregnant. Pregnant!? That’s news to Dal Man and so they hurry to turn the boat back. Problem is, they don’t know how to since the boat is so old, so they resort to waiting for assistance.

By the time Dae Chun gets back, she’s already gone and she left a letter for him. (One of many in this drama.) She tells him how happy she was with him, but misses him dearly having been forced to return home to Japan. She chooses to wait for him to come. But when he comes, Masao beats Dae Chun and won’t let him near Takako. Everywhere Masao is, Dae Chun is on his knees, begging and waiting.

His prospects look dire, and on top of that some of Masao’s men manhandle him and force him into a car. But luckily enough, it’s all part of Takako and her mother’s plan. The men even lie to Masao and say that his wife whisked the daughter away to a hot springs resort. (Clearly one must never cross the woman of the household…)

Takako, her mother, and Dae Chun arrive at Dal Man’s house in Busan, much to his delight (because he’s going to have a grandson now). They want to hurry the wedding, and the sisters want a traditional Korean wedding. Takako is slightly uneasy that her father won’t be around for the wedding, but she has her mother’s full support. The mother returns to Japan and apologizes, but she reminds Masao that it was not all too different when they got married under their parents’ disapproval as well. It’s not their wedding, it’s their daughter’s.

The day of the wedding arrives, and Masao and his wife arrive at the wedding ceremony – to crash. Masao pushes past Dal Man and forcibly grabs his daughter. Takako apologizes to Dae Chun and says she cannot go through with the wedding.

Comments:

The whole set up is pretty amusing to begin with. Disapproving parents with reasons we can’t really understand but will be clarified later. The only thing I don’t understand is why Takako couldn’t go through with the wedding. After being willfully stubborn against her father, all of a sudden she can’t go through with it because she doesn’t have his approval? Or she bends towards his will easily? I can understand the need and desire to get a parent’s approval, but it seemed kind of out of line with her character so far. It looked more like a ploy to prevent the marriage from happening just yet.